GitHub - PerryTS/pry: A fast, native JSON viewer built with Perry — TypeScript compiled to native ARM64

A fast, native JSON viewer for macOS, iOS, Android, Linux, and Windows.

Built with Perry — a compiler that turns TypeScript into native binaries with no Electron, no browser, and no runtime.

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Features

• Tree view with expand/collapse for objects and arrays
• Full-text search across keys and values
• Keyboard shortcuts (Cmd/Ctrl+O open, Cmd/Ctrl+F search, Cmd/Ctrl+E expand all)
• Copy values, keys, or JSONPath to clipboard via context menu
• Status bar with node count, file size, and parse time

How it works

Pry is written in TypeScript and compiled by the Perry compiler (a Rust program) directly to native machine code — no Node.js, no JVM, no interpreter.

Perry's UI API maps to native OS widgets on each platform:

The result is a small, self-contained binary that starts instantly with no GC pauses or JIT warmup.

Platforms

• macOS — native AppKit (src/main.ts) — App Store
• Linux — native GTK4 (src/main_linux.ts)
• Windows — native Win32 (src/main_windows.ts) — signing coming soon
• iOS — native UIKit (src/main_ios.ts) — App Store
• Android — native Android Views (src/main_android.ts) — Google Play

Building

Pry is compiled by the Perry compiler. You need the perry repo cloned as a sibling directory.

# macOS
cd /path/to/perry && cargo run --release -- compile /path/to/perry-pry/src/main.ts -o /path/to/perry-pry/pry
./pry

# Linux (requires gtk4-devel)
cd /path/to/perry && cargo run --release -- compile /path/to/perry-pry/src/main_linux.ts -o /path/to/perry-pry/pry
./pry

# Windows
cd /path/to/perry && cargo run --release -- compile /path/to/perry-pry/src/main_windows.ts --target windows -o /path/to/perry-pry/pry.exe
./pry.exe

# iOS Simulator
cd /path/to/perry && cargo run --release -- compile /path/to/perry-pry/src/main_ios.ts -o /path/to/perry-pry/pry-ios --target ios-simulator

# Android
cd /path/to/perry && cargo run --release -- compile /path/to/perry-pry/src/main_android.ts --target android -o /path/to/perry-pry/android/app/src/main/jniLibs/arm64-v8a/libpry.so
cd /path/to/perry-pry/android && ./gradlew installDebug

Project Structure

src/                 # TypeScript source (4 entry points + 11 shared modules)
android/             # Android Studio project
xcode/               # Xcode project for iOS/macOS App Store builds
test-data/           # Sample JSON files
screenshots/         # App screenshots by platform

License

MIT License. See LICENSE for details.